Hedgehog flea

The hedgehog flea (Archaeopsylla erinacei) is a flea species which, as indicated by its common name, is an external parasite specifically adapted to living with the European hedgehog and the North African hedgehog, but it has also been found on other animals.

Hedgehog flea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Siphonaptera
Family:
Pulicidae
Subfamily:
Pulicinae
Genus:
Archaeopsylla
Species:
Archaeopsylla erinacei
Binomial name
Archaeopsylla erinacei
Bouché, 1835

Description

Named in 1835 by Peter Friedrich Bouché,[1] A. erinacei is a common flea "found on every hedgehog, usually in large numbers".[2] A typical number of fleas on a hedgehog is about a hundred, but up to a thousand have been reported on sick animals.[3] The flea is occasionally found also on dogs and cats, but only temporarily, and has been known to cause allergic dermatitis in dogs.[4] It has also been found on foxes.[5] The flea's length is between 2 and 3.5 millimetres,[6] and its food is the blood of the host.

Reproduction

The flea's reproductive cycle is closely connected with that of the host species.[7] The female breeds only in the nest of a breeding hedgehog, and this is probably prompted by host hormones, as in the case of the rabbit flea, Spilopsyllus cuniculi.[8]

The female flea lays eggs in the host's nesting material. Once hatched, larvae feed on faeces, which include dried blood, and on other material in the nest, then pupate, and adult fleas emerge from the pupae after several days, with variations which depend on temperature and other factors. The lifecycle can be repeated in weeks.[9]

Range

The species is most commonly found on hedgehogs in western and northern Europe, including the British Isles, but it is also established in hedgehog populations in other European countries, including the Czech Republic, Croatia, Greece, and the Ukraine, and in North Africa.

European hedgehogs are an invasive exotic species in New Zealand, but exceptionally the population there is entirely without the hedgehog flea. The fleas probably did not survive the long journey by sea from Europe.[10]

The subspecies A. e. maura is the common stenoxenous flea of the North African hedgehog in the western Mediterranean regions of North Africa, from Morocco to Libya, and on the Mediterranean coast of Spain.[11][12]

Diseases

A. erinacei is the only flea known to be implicated in the zoonotic cycle of Boutonneuse fever.[9]

Subspecies
  • A. e. erinacei Bouché, 1835
  • A. e. maura Jordan & Rothschild, 1912

Taxonomy

References
  1. Boris R. Krasnov, Functional and Evolutionary Ecology of Fleas (2008), p. 558
  2. Entomologist's Gazette, vols. 5-6 (1954), p. 88
  3. Hugh Warwick, A Prickly Affair: My Life with Hedgehogs (2010), p. 28
  4. Black's Veterinary Dictionary (2015), p. 655
  5. Encyclopedia of mammals - Volume 7 (Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1997), p. 979
  6. Roger Anthony Avery, Roy Watling, Identification of animal parasites (1974), p. 124
  7. John Heath, Provisional Atlas of the Insects of the British Isles: Siphonaptera, fleas (Biological Records Centre, Monks Wood Experimental Station, 1974), p. 8
  8. Zoon: Supplement - Volumes 1-2 (1973), p. 102
  9. Regional Disease Vector Ecology Profile: Central Europe, p. 106
  10. Carolyn M. King, The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals (Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 112
  11. K. Kuhbièr, J. A. Alcover, Guerau C. d'Arellano Tur, Biogeography and Ecology of the Pityusic Islands (2012), p. 378
  12. K. Jordan and N. C. Rothschild, in Novitates Zoologicae 18 (1912) (Map 1)

Further reading
  • Kurt Z. F. Sgonina, Die Reizphysiologie des Igelflohes (Archaeopsylla erinacei Bouché) und seiner Larve, in Zeitschrift für Parasitenkunde 7 (1935), pp. 539–571, doi:10.1007/BF02120209.
  • G. H. E. Hopkins, Miriam Rothschild, An illustrated catalogue of the Rothschild collection of fleas (Siphonaptera) in the British Museum (1953).
  • "Archaeopsylla erinacei". National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
  • Archaeopsylla erinacei at Encyclopedia of Life
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